Julia Gillard's controversial attempt to rescue Labor by claiming Tony Abbott would marginalise women and change abortion rights has backfired, with support among male voters collapsing.

With Kevin Rudd as leader the best case for Labor is a possible hung Parliament.

In a finding certain to ratchet up pressure on the Prime Minister's besieged leadership, the latest Fairfax-Nielsen poll has found Labor's standing has continued to slide, led entirely by a 7 per cent exodus of men, while failing to lift substantially among female voters.

Gillard's poll woes

According to the monthly survey, the ALP's primary vote now has a psychologically devastating ''2'' in front of it with less than three months to the election on September 14.

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Ms Gillard also has gone backwards as preferred prime minister, giving her the lowest approval rating in a year.

The poll coincides with the final sittings of the 43rd Parliament and shows that at 29 per cent, Labor's primary support has slipped below the 30 per cent barrier for only the second time this year. With the Coalition attracting 47 per cent of first-preference votes, Labor trails by a staggering 18 points on primary votes, putting the overall two party-preferred vote at 43-57 in favour of the Coalition or 42-58 based on how the 1400 respondents said they would allocate preferences.

Electorate misjudgement: Julia Gillard now has the lowest approval rating in a year. Photo: David Mariuz

If reflected at the election, that would mean a 7 per cent swing to the Coalition on the 50-50 hung Parliament result of 2010, and mean the loss of 30 or more seats, virtually halving Labor's representation now.

But the poll also shows that with Kevin Rudd in charge, almost the entire advantage to the Coalition would be wiped out, taking Labor's primary vote up to 40 per cent, the Coalition's down to 42 per cent, and the two party-preferred split to a dead-heat 50-50.

As nervous Labor MPs gather in Canberra for what many fear will be a tumultuous session in which the leadership issue may explode, the poll confirms Mr Rudd remains personally more popular than Ms Gillard with a preferred Labor leader rating of 58 per cent to her 32 per cent.

But among Labor voters, Ms Gillard still holds a 6 point lead. Mr Rudd's 26 point lead over Ms Gillard overall was beaten by the gap between former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull and his successor Mr Abbott.

Mr Turnbull is twice as popular among all voters as Mr Abbott at 62-32, once again confirming that neither main party leader is popular and that voters strongly prefer the former leaders.

Arriving at Canberra airport on Monday morning, Mr Rudd said he had ''noting further to add'' on the leadership question.

''I have nothing further to add on what I've said before,'' he told reporters.

Earlier this month, Mr Rudd said he was not a candidate for the Labor leadership and ''I do not see any circumstances under which I would return to the leadership''.

He said that his purpose in Canberra this week - as it had been in travelling around the country in support of Labor MPs - was to stop Mr Abbott from becoming the next prime minister of Australia.

''He is the single, most . . . extreme right-wing, political leader that the Liberal Party has ever thrown up,'' Mr Rudd said.

In response to further questions about the Labor leadership, he added: ''What I'm really excited about this week is my daughter Jessica and my granddaughter Josephine are back in Australia for holidays.''

Labor frontbencher David Bradbury, who holds his western Sydney seat of Lindsay with a margin of just 1.1 per cent, continued to back Ms Gillard on Monday, despite the poor poll result.

''I reckon she's got more leadership capabilities in her small finger than the collective bodies of those critics of hers that are out there,'' he told ABC radio.

Mr Bradbury said he would not comment on individual polls but suggested that Mr Rudd may be more popular than Ms Gillard due to a ''grass is greener on the other side'' effect.

Ms Gillard was also backed by Trade Minister Craig Emerson on Monday morning. Dr Emerson acknowledged there was internal chatter but said nothing was happening as a result.

''I'm hearing talk and no action, and that's as it should be,'' he told ABC radio.

When asked on Sunday night if Ms Gillard should quit for the good of Labor, NSW backbencher Laurie Ferguson said: ''Absolutely not.''

The member for Werriwa explained, ''I don't see (any) alternative to her''.

Mr Ferguson said Mr Rudd was not a viable alternative, suggesting he would damage Labor's election hopes in western Sydney, where many voters are still unhappy with the government's asylum seeker policies.

''Quite frankly, I think that five minutes after he's elected leader, the Opposition will be stressing the immigration changes that he engineered,'' he said. ''And that's western Sydney.''

Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said Labor could change leaders, but it would still have the same problems.

''You can put a lick of paint on a haunted house but it'll still be the rat-infested, white-anted haunted house that it was before,'' he said.

The Labor frontbench would go from being the ''c-team'' to the ''d-team'' under Mr Rudd, he said.

The results of the poll taken nationwide between last Thursday and Saturday reveal voters are unimpressed by Ms Gillard's attempts to politicise the abortion issue, claiming it would become the ''plaything'' of male politicians, and that under the Coalition women would be banished from public life.

The claims brought protests from all sides and criticism from prominent feminist commentators. Liberals and some Labor MPs complained it was an attempt to spread fear and divide Australians - and the poll suggests that is how voters viewed it.

Pollster John Stirton said the swing against Labor occurred only among men. ''Labor's primary vote was down 7 points among men and up 1 point among women.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said on Monday that he was not going to go into the ups and downs of opinion polls when he arrived at Canberra airport.

When asked if he was surprised that Ms Gillard's support among male voters had collapsed in the latest Fairfax/Nielsen poll, he said:

''I think the government of Australia and the Prime Minister of Australia should be above playing these sorts of cards. Whether it's the gender card, the class card, the where-you-are-born card. We should be bigger and better than that,'' he said.

The poll shows that the leadership of the government is now inextricably linked with its electoral chances, suggesting the ALP could avert annihilation in September by switching back to Mr Rudd.

But while the results will send shockwaves through an already dispirited ALP, Mr Stirton warned against reading a snapshot of voter sentiment as a reliable forecast.

"With Kevin Rudd as leader the best case for Labor is a possible hung Parliament,'' he said. ''This assumes a perfectly smooth transition from Gillard to Rudd, a supportive party united behind Mr Rudd and a honeymoon that continues to election day.''

This he called ''a magical scenario''.

''More realistically, Mr Rudd would probably retain more seats than Ms Gillard but he would be unlikely to retain government on these numbers," Mr Stirton said.

17 Jun
I simply don't understand all the fuss about Julia Gillard talking about a women's issue (abortion) to a group of women. How is it playing the gender card to raise concerns which are relevant to your audience? And why are men so angry that she should do so?